December 16, 2024

James 4.2, 3 (NIV)

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

God will never bless a man in his sins.*

Some of James’ readers wanted things they couldn’t get (and shouldn’t have), even though they quarreled, fought, coveted, and killed for it. He doesn’t tell these people that they “have not because they ask not,” in an attempt to encourage them to pray. His message is, “If you are willing to do all that in an attempt to get what you want, are you really going to ask God for it?” And what if they did ask God for what they wanted? James says that whether they don’t pray at all, or whether they pray with wrong motives, they will not receive what they want from God. He is not a genie in a lamp to grant our wishes and fulfill our shallow dreams.

Are we as bad as they were? We don’t kill for what we want, but we do want what we want, don’t we?  Don’t we beg God to grant our wishes? Have you ever prayed for something you shouldn’t have – for bad things to happen to someone; to pass a test you didn’t study for; for things you don’t need but want really, really bad? Have you ever manipulated and schemed to make something happen?

Getting stuff from God is not why he invented prayer. Don’t misunderstand me - God wants to hear from us and he wants us to tell him what is on our hearts. But can you not see the difference between seeking God’s will and telling him what to do?* Can you see the irony in abusing or neglecting prayer when we “serve a God who generously gives all good and perfect gifts”?*

Selflessness remains a key to prayer power.*